초록 ▼

A granular fertilizer spreader which may be attached to a lawn mower (1). The spreader includes a hopper (44) which is secured to the mower handle (3), the spreader including drive wheels (9,10) which frictionally engage the rear mower wheels (7,8). An impeller (99) is rotated by the drive wheels (9

A granular fertilizer spreader which may be attached to a lawn mower (1). The spreader includes a hopper (44) which is secured to the mower handle (3), the spreader including drive wheels (9,10) which frictionally engage the rear mower wheels (7,8). An impeller (99) is rotated by the drive wheels (9,10), thereby urging fertilizer or other granular material contained within hopper (44) to exit through a series of orifices (73-84) located along the bottom surface (54) of the hopper (44). A discharge chute (134) entrains the fertilizer as it exits the orifices (73-84) and guides the fertilizer along a series of open channels (138-149), each channel terminating with an outlet orifice (152-163 ) through which the fertilizer is ultimately deposited upon the ground behind the mower deck (2). The drive wheels (9,10) are urged into positive frictional contact with the mower wheels (7,8) by a spring (187) that is secured to the mower handle (3) at a user selected point by a clamp (196).

대표청구항 ▼

A granular material spreading apparatus, comprising: (a) a discharge chute, the discharge chute having a first edge, a second edge and a bottom surface, the second edge being adapted to distribute the granular material onto an area of ground with substantially uniform density per unit of ground area

A granular material spreading apparatus, comprising: (a) a discharge chute, the discharge chute having a first edge, a second edge and a bottom surface, the second edge being adapted to distribute the granular material onto an area of ground with substantially uniform density per unit of ground area that is traversed by the discharge chute; (b) a hopper, the hopper having a first opening and a plurality of hopper discharge openings, the first hopper discharge opening being adapted to receive the granular material, the hopper discharge openings being adapted to deposit the granular material adjacent to the first edge of the discharge chute; (c) a series of diverging open channels, the diverging open channels having a first width in a region near the first edge of the discharge chute, the diverging open channels having a second width in a region abutting the second edge of the discharge chute, the first width being less than the second width; and (d) a plurality of chute discharge openings formed in the bottom surface of the discharge chute such that one chute discharge opening is formed in the bottom surface of the discharge chute underlying each diverging open channel, each chute discharge opening being located along the second edge of the discharge chute and having a width that is more than half the second width of the diverging open channel in which the discharge opening is formed. A method of distributing granular fertilizer while operating a walk behind lawn mower, comprising the steps of: (a) mounting a hopper behind the lawn mower such that a first pair of drive wheels rotatably affixed to an impeller within the hopper frictionally engages a second pair of rear mower wheels; (b) resiliently urging the first pair of drive wheels into frictional engagement with the second pair of rear mower wheels; and (c) mounting at least one adjustable clamp onto a component of the lawn mower such that slidable adjustment of the clamp varies the frictional engagement between the first pair of drive wheels and the second pair of rear mower wheels.